The Chapel in Wadsworth

While the Pharisees turned the Sabbath into a burden of strict rules and missed its original purpose, Jesus reclaimed it. We are called to view the Sabbath not as a rule, but as a life giving pattern found in Christ that requires ceasing our own striving to actively enjoy God.

In Luke 5:12–26, we see an intentional outline of Jesus’s compassion, confrontation, and power shown in the healing of two people. Jesus uses His divine power to address humanity's deepest problem; sin and the need for forgiveness; rather than just fixing surface-level, presenting problems.

As we considered Luke's account of Jesus calling His first disciples, we see a contrast between the safety of the shore with the vulnerability of the deep water. Jesus purposefully confronts Peter's self-sufficiency to show him to take a step of faith. Believers are called to surrender self-sufficiency and security, and fully commit to following Christ who gives abundant life now and for eternity.

This Sunday we dove into Luke 4:31-44, and recognized Jesus' absolute authority over evil as demonstrated through his miraculous healings. These miracles serve as signs of Christ's power over the effects of sin and death, while cautioning that the ultimate purpose of Jesus's mission was to offer access to the Father through the proclamation of the Gospel rather than just temporary physical healing...

We considered the concept of becoming a "house of prayer" as defined in Mark 11, and emphasized that believers carry both the authority of Jesus and the intimacy with God. In what ways are we using prayer as a tool to see God's kingdom break out into our city?

As we looked at Ephesians 4, we focused on the Ministry & Mission environment of our Discipleship Pathway, and zoomed in on the Ministry side. We considered how believers can participate with the Holy Spirit to build up the church. Just as Jesus received authority from God to give the ultimate gift of His "body" (the church) to the world, individual believers have also received unique gifts meant...

We considered that every believer is part of a "royal priesthood" called to both an inward-facing role of worshiping God and an outward-facing role of sharing the Gospel. As the church body, we are called to align our earthly priorities with the realities of heaven through local and global mission.

Humanity is aching for a kind of life it cannot manufacture on it's own. The future re-creation that humanity longs for has broken into the present through Jesus. We can't do the Lord's work without the Lord's way. His way is empowered by the Holy Spirit. We, the church, are the Spirit filled, Heavenly Humanity on Earth.

This week we considered that God’s primary mission is recreation of the world through Jesus. The church is called to be a "new humanity" empowered by the Holy Spirit. We have a personal invitation to allow God into the "wastelands" of their own lives—such as broken habits or stagnant desires—to begin His recreative work from the inside out, through the Spirit.

This week we answer the question for our church; how do we as the church grow as followers of Christ in the work that the Lord is doing here in Wadsworth? To understand this, we are breaking it down into four environments, or spaces we participate with God in our discipleship to Jesus.

As we look at the conclusion of the Gospel of Luke, we see that the Resurrection of Jesus is a physical reality that transforms fear and doubt into great joy. Encountering the living Jesus provides an objective anchor and "peace" in an unsettling, rapidly changing world. This peace is not merely as the absence of conflict, but the restoration of all things to God's original design. Are we living u...

Looking at the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, we considered how God nourishes and sustains the faith of believers through both objective truth and personal experiences. Though Jesus initially hid his identity to show that faith must first be anchored in the "objective reality" of the Scriptures rather than just emotions or physical sight. By sharing the scriptures and later breaking bread, Jesus demon...

As we celebrated the Resurrection, we considered the initial lack of expectation for a miracle from the people closest to Jesus. How often does our own brokenness blind us from God's power? By faith in Jesus, we are saved. The gospel calls for a complete swap out of one's life for Christ’s and for us to believe in the promise that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life.

We considered Jesus' entry into Jerusalem through the "living parable" of the healing of two blind men. This miracle serves as a lens to show that only those who are humble, desperate, and dependent—like children or the blind—can truly see and praise Jesus.

This week we considered how the devil acts as a personal deceiver who exploits our disordered desires. "Flaming darts," or attacks from the enemy, are designed to sow confusion and distract us from God’s truth. We consider how to combat these attacks by wearing the full armor of God and standing firm on God's faithfulness.

Temptation often starts with our own disordered desires and appetites that seek ultimate satisfaction in things of the world. Giving in to these impulses over and over makes us "callous," meaning we stop being able to feel or enjoy life the way God designed us to. Willpower alone often fails, so we must lean into a greater desire to abide in Jesus, who overcame the world and is our ultimate satisf...

Three distinct yet interdependent sources of temptation are the world, the flesh and the devil. An external system, internal appetite and the evil one who is a wicked collaborator between the two are against God and His people. Where do you find the evil one trying to connect the fallen world to your inner desires? The more we learn to recognize in our own lives where our particular disordered des...

As we look into Jesus’ third temptation in Luke 4, where the devil tries to get him to "prove" God’s love, we can relate because in seasons of vulnerability and isolation we often feel the urge to demand a miracle or a sign when life gets hard and God feels distant. While the Israelites constantly grumbled and questioned God’s presence in the desert seen in Exodus 17, Jesus did the opposite—he sta...

The temptation to seek immediate satisfaction and ease over faithful obedience is a universal human vulnerability. From scripture, we observe that true joy and intimacy with God are found not through shortcuts or "moral rigor," but through taking up one's own cross and trusting in the supreme worth of God’s goodness.

Jesus, though fully divine, faced trials in His humanity by relying on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. God often allows us to experience hunger or unmet needs to prove that He alone is truly satisfying, especially during moments of vulnerability. If we internalize scripture, the Word of God will come out when we are "squeezed" with trials.

As we consider the biblical metaphor of the body in 1 Corinthians 12, we see that every member is indispensable and that true growth requires both relational depth and a commitment to caring for one another. One of the ways we are called to "abide" in Jesus is by building practical, rooted relationships within the congregation.

As we consider Jesus’ ministry and mission, we can define it as the proclamation and embodiment of the "Kingdom of God," where the beauty and order of heaven are brought into earthly reality. Rather than viewing ministry as a set of religious tasks, we see it as becoming the kind of people through whom God works, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

The Worship Gathering is the next of our four foundational commitments that we as a church are prioritizing in our devotion to Jesus. The weekly assembly of God's people returns all of the things we need to be the people of God in the place that He has positioned. Our rest comes from receiving nourishment, strength, encouragement, clarity, conviction and a reminder of who we are and who God is. It...

The first of our Foundational Commitments we will be considering as a church is Devotion to Jesus. As we follow the example of the Peter in Matthew 16, we see the internal struggle between standing on the sure foundation of faith and stumbling due to self-centered desires. Are we investing our time and energy into the eternal value of a relationship with Jesus?

As we consider Matthew 2, we see a contrast of the reactions of King Herod and the Magi to the birth of Jesus, illustrating the difference between moving toward or away from God's light. While Herod responded with secrecy, deception, and eventually murder to protect his own power, the Magi traveled great distances without certainty, ultimately finding joy and worshiping Jesus. Are we viewing Jesus...